At Pax East, we got a taste of what to expect from Gears of War 4 at their panel and we’re going insane! Panelist comprised of Director of Community Adam Fletcher, Studio Head Rod Fergusson, Lead MP Designer Ryan Cleven, and Director of Business Development Sara Boatman.
The announcement of Gears of War 4 multiplayer modes threw the entire audience into a roar of excitement. The biggest hardship the team faced was to create a Gears of War experience that felt authentic. Returning to the Gears 3 gameplay style, The Coalition embraced the elements that made the franchise great.
With the introduction of new multiplayer modes, new finishers, new abilities, new weapons, new skins, 60 FPS dedicated servers for LAN, and more, Gears of War 4 is revving up to be a must have for Gears fans. Let’s comb through all awesome news!
The team’s biggest challenge was innovating combat. Cover is the single most important element of Gears’ gameplay, so it is amazing to see two new abilities players can conduct in close cover combat.
New Cover Combat Skills
Yank and shank is a defensive alternative to mantle kick that pulls enemies over cover to execute a finisher using a combat knife. Each race will have their own type of knife and finisher. This ability can be countered.
Vault Kick is a faster alternative to mantle kick in which players who are roadie running vault over cover and leave their victims open for a combat knife finisher. This ability can be countered.
New Multiplayer Modes
Dodgeball is a high intensity mode where teammates will respawn when you kill an enemy. First team to eliminate the other wins.
Escalation is Gears of War 4 new esports premier competitive mode designed for viewing and casting. Built with esports in mind, the mode drew inspirations from MOBA-like mechanics but still kept the feel of Gears. With the new spectator mode, it offers capabilities to look over stats, ghost camera, jump cam, and provide play-by-play detail to all matches for fans and casters. The mode challenges players with respawn timers that increase every 2 secs making lives matter more.
CO-OP Vs AI offers players a chance to practice or play casually with AI enemies. AI difficulty can be changed at whim to cater to player skill. All AIs are highly skilled with different fighting personalities. No longer will AIs have the same boring logic, so keep on your toes!
In addition to the new modes, old modes will also be available such as team death match, king of the hill, guardian, warzone, and execution.
New Weapons
Two new weapons introduced were the dropshot and buzzkill, each with unique killing abilities that can be creatively combined with skills for insane plays!
Gear Crates
Players can earn credits playing in any game mode to purchase gear crates. This allows players to earn everything in the game through play, but if players want to expedite obtaining items they can do so via real currency to purchase credits. There are three tiers of crates with a different mix of consumables and durables. Within crates, there is the chance to redeem cards which come in four different varieties: character/weapon skins, emblems, and bounties. Cards can be applied to all gameplay modes including campaign.
Curated Maps
At launch, ten multiplayer maps will be available to play with nine new maps and gridlocks. Every month DLC maps will be release for free with a mix of both new and remastered modes. Maps will be rotated out depending on how often players select them. Rotated out maps can be bought using credits or money, and only the host of a match will need to purchase to play.
New Merchandise
Launching a new estore, you can now purchase official clothing on Gears’ online store or at Hot Topic, Walmart, or Spencers. In conjunction with McFarlane Toys, Triforce, and FUNKO Gears of War 4 launched new toys and replicas based on concept art. The below Triforce collaboration with Gears of War 4 showcases JD Fenix on a biker. It is based on the concept art by James Hawk and will be available to pre-order after 4/25/2016.
All Gears of War 4 beta players will receive an Xbox avatar shirt for playing! The beta period runs through May 1st, so sign up now to dive into what fans are calling the best Gears since 3.
